Rust Happens (Even on Stainless Steel Firearms)

So you bought that snazzy stainless firearm because the guy behind the counter told you it’d shed the elements like water off a duck’s back. Yeah, right.

“The trend in firearms clearly seems to be away from the classic blued ones and in favor of those being marketed as stainless. But a big misconception comes into play, when a person thinks these stainless in appearance firearms are impervious to rust. In reality, they are every bit as susceptible to rusting as a blued gun—it may take a little longer for the rust to take hold, but rust they will … . The reason this happens is based on the fact that, while the gun metal may look like stainless steel, it really isn’t stainless at all.”—Tom Tabor, “10 Shooting Myths Exposed,” Gun Digest 2013, 67th Edition

About Jennifer L.S. Pearsall

Jennifer L.S. Pearsall joined Gun Digest in summer 2011 as a books editor. She began her career selling guns in a retail gun shop and handgun range in Northern Virginia in the early 1990s. Recruited by the NRA to join its editorial staff in 1999, she then went on to succeed as a freelance writer and photographer. She's been a competitive shooter in many disciplines, including sporting clays, IPSC, and metallic blackpowder cartridge silhouette, and she has been an avid hunter for many years.